ZoNa Summer Festival
by Hanzatsu-Hime
Summary: The ZoNa event of the summer is here! Check out the Author's Note in Ch. 1 to see all of our themes for a week-long event celebrationg ZoroXNami! [Theme 7 - Barbecue] Innuendos were not on the menu for the Mugiwara's barbecue!
1. Ice Cubes

**ZoNa Summer Festival!**

_**Theme:**_ Ice Cubes  
_**Rating:**_ PG / K  
_**Word Count:**_ 2,706 words

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_**Note:** _For more information about this event, check out the Author's Note down below!

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'_One thousand forty-eight… One thousand forty-nine!_' Keeping track of every single swing of his oversized mallet was a type of meditation for Roronoa Zoro. It kept him focused despite the ache in his muscles, providing him with a distraction from the strain he enjoyed putting on his body. Any distress he experienced while training was only another challenge he'd need to face in order to become the strongest swordsman in the world.

His least favourite hurdle to date had to be the sunburn that was being baked into his back, however.

He had been working out on the landing beneath the main mast for nearly an hour, without a shirt on, without any protection from the rays of the sun. Every single flex caused the skin along his back to sting as he carried on with his regiment and his vigilance divulged easily between the numbers in his head and the way his shoulders simmered. Zoro knew he wouldn't stop his practice because he was hurting though - he had only grown so powerful by fighting through the pain of his training methods over the years - so he convinced himself that Chopper could fix him right up once he was finished.

Despite the agony that ran along his spine, the swordsman threw his mallet overhead and prepared to count even higher.

"Zoro?" A familiar shrill scream caused him to hesitate in his stride. Of course she was behind him, which caused him to look back at her by pivoting his hips in order to acknowledge her obvious panic. He watched her bikini-clad body peak out from behind the mast at the exact same pace that he turned around.

With gritted teeth, he asked her, "What?"

"Are you okay?" The words left her slowly, cautiously, like she was hesitant about bothering him when he was exercising. Still, he could tell by the look in her eyes that her concern was much too overwhelming for her to pretend that she didn't notice him.

It still didn't make sense to Zoro as to why her sudden show of sympathy forced her to interrupt him. With his mallet still clenched between his hands high above his head, he lost his breath momentarily when he answered her, "Yeah."

"Huh." Nami replied, obviously unconvinced of his short answer. "I just came up here to water my grove and I heard you grunting over there a lot more than usual. It sounded like you were in pain or-"

"I'm not!" He promised.

Nami immediately shrugged off his irritation, deciding to let her worry go. "All right." His aggression had stolen away her interest in their interaction, which worked out well for the swordsman who was ready to make his one thousand fiftieth throw. His fingers twitched around the handle, his core warned him that it was growing tired, and yet he took his time to reposition himself properly so that his next swing was still refined.

'_One thousand...fifty!_'

"Oh! Zoro, what the hell!?" Once again, her screeching startled him until he became still. At least this time his arms were down.

"What!?" Zoro bellowed. It took all of the air in his lungs to shout at her, which was something he was quite happy to do.

"Your back… It's burnt! Can't you feel it?" Nami couldn't decide if she felt like pitying him or chastising him as both were reflected in her tone.

'_Of course I can, idiot_.' He thought to himself.

"Relax! I'm fine." Zoro chose to answer her more carefully. He knew that the greatest threat to his sunburn was an irritated, offended navigator, so he chose to keep his true sentiment a secret.

If the anger in her eyes could have manifested into flames, Nami would have simply incinerated him and made the issue of his sunburn moot. Zoro moved his gaze to those scowling, pink lips of hers and anticipated the flamethrower she was about to launch at him with her surely scathing words, since he knew she wouldn't just walk away quietly now that she was riled up.

Except, that was exactly what she did.

Almost as if she had taken offence to his yelling for the first time in their entire relationship, Nami stomped off in her ridiculous heeled sandals until she had successfully opened the small trap door, climbed down the ladder that would take her to the kitchen and disappeared completely from his sight.

"Tch." Was his response to the entire conversation. He hadn't meant to be so rude, if the truth be told. The stress of his exercise routine plus the added burning sensation along his back had put him in a foul mood already. Her interruptions were unnecessary and unwarranted.

Maybe he'd save her from some future villain as a form of an apology.

For now, Zoro was grateful for the peace and quiet once again. He was grateful to return his attention to his mallet and resume at one thousand fifty strokes. With roughly only one quarter of his practice completed, there was still a great deal more to get through before dinner time. All he really needed to do was even out his exposure to the sun and turn his body around until he faced a different direction, he hypothesized.

For the rest of his routine, Zoro decided to face the back of the ship and take in the view of the ocean, particularly paying attention to the waves that were broken up by the Sunny's rudder.

Never mind the pair of heels he heard behind him once again. Zoro chose to believe that it was nothing more than Robin coming to water her own garden, that he scared Nami away with his crass behaviour and he was free of anymore of her meddling. Almost as if he feared that he might be wrong, Zoro reached for the grip of his mallet and was more than ready to complete his one thousand fifty-first swing…!

"_Agh!_" He screamed when something frightfully cold slammed into his slightly singed skin. Zoro's entire body recoiled from the frigid touch, causing him to dance around the wide range of his mallet's head in order to escape such cruelty.

While he wasn't surprised that it was Nami who subjected him to something so unpleasant, he also wasn't too thrilled to see her again. All of his previous guilt evaporated. "What the-!?"

"You can't see it," Nami began, infuriated. In her hand was checkered dish cloth wrapped around something jagged. He easily deduced that it was a huge collection of ice cubes she stole from the freezer in the kitchen down below, but the size of the cluster looked absolutely insane. "But your sunburn makes you look like you're wearing Luffy's vest. The one he wore when we first met him."

"So you thought you'd hit me with some ice and make it all disappear!?" Zoro called out her lunacy loud enough so that the entire ship could hear.

Unbothered, Nami continued, "If it hurts so much that you're whimpering, just take a break and put on a damn shirt. Or better yet, get some sunblock on. You know I use it all the time when I'm tanning. You could have asked me nicely for it just now instead of whining like a kid."

"_You_ could have just minded your own business!" Zoro retorted.

"I'm trying to help you! If it ends up blistering, you won't be able to work out for a week until it's all healed! Then, you'd be wishing you'd listened to me!" Nami fired back.

Uninterested in anything else that was even remotely heated, he was ready to burn this conversation down with some scorching hot words of his own. "I didn't ask you to give a damn about it! You can't just mind your own damn business, can you? Go back to your trees or your maps or whatever and leave me the hell alone! Got it!?"

It was _her_ fault, he concluded.

He wasn't going to blame the sun for his bad mood when Nami was more often than not the cause of it.

This time, he didn't wait to see if she'd respond or storm off in a huff. Zoro made the decision to turn his back on her first.

His dismissal of her was not received well.

"_Rgh!_ Dammit!" shouted a forcibly chilled swordsman when he felt a handful of ice slip underneath the back of his haramaki. The ice cubes jostled around beneath the heavy fabric and even started to melt before he could claw them out. When he realized he had missed two of the slippery devils, he simply pulled on his haramaki until there was enough room for them to fall right out. Looking back and forth between the pair on the floor and the bunch that he held, he realized he had been attacked with nearly blocks of ice!

An unladylike snort escaped his attacker.

Zoro lifted his one good eye to glare at Nami, who appeared to have found his involuntary, flustered dance rather amusing. Her mouth was curled into a rather wide grin, her big brown eyes were wide with delight and they even sparkled with some kind of satisfaction too. It irritated him thoroughly to see her so happy at his expense…

That was when Zoro realized that there was enough ice in her hand for him to exact some kind of revenge.

The mound of ice cubes was unwrapped in her hand since she had just shoved some underneath his haramaki, allowing him to snatch a large amount with his quick reflexes and large hand. Shock crashed down upon her face so fast, Nami's mouth fell open when she realized that she had foolishly supplied him with ammo.

Just in case she thought they were going to simply resolve this with words, Zoro offered one kind word of advice: "Run."

Nami fumbled over her sandal-wearing feet at first when she tried to run away from him, much to his amusement. It was _his_ turn to smirk at _her_ as he took one large step, then another, and another until he was hot on her trail. He gave chase after the supposed cat burglar like the angry mutt he was, only his cruel chuckling replaced what should have been enraged barking. There was nowhere to go on this section of the ship unless she planned to jump the railing or take her time trying to climb back down into the kitchen.

It'd be amusing for him either way.

But of course, nothing was ever easy with Nami. She decided that her best course of action was to run around her precious trees in a poor attempt to put some distance between them. Zoro's physical power plus his longer limbs managed to close any sort of added gap before she could look over her shoulder to see if it worked.

"Ah!" She yelped the moment she saw how close he was.

Trailing around the back of the main mast, Zoro felt strong, in control. He seized the moment to tease her for once. "What's wrong, Nami?"  
"Stay _away_!" She screamed.

"Don't you want to cool down too?"  
"I'd rather fall in the ocean than let you touch me!"

"I can help you with that too."

"_No_!" Her piercing plea only entertained him more.

Zoro knew he was much too engrossed in playing the predator against his typical tyrannical enemy. Nevertheless, he wasn't going to stop until she knew what it felt like having ice stuck in her…

Well, her bikini bottoms, he supposed.

No matter where he put them, he'd enjoy watching her reaction.

"_Hey_!" Shouted Zoro's greatest annoyance through the trap door down below.

For some reason, it panicked him to think that someone would find him behaving so fiendishly with the navigator. Anyone else in the crew would probably view his actions as predatory, even if Nami was definitely more of a danger to the average man than he would ever be. Their dynamic might be misunderstood by anyone else in the crew, especially the Prince of Dumbass Kingdom!

So, he reacted reflexively.

Zoro reached out in a desperate attempt to stop Nami from running, and he managed to catch her arm just as they had circled back around the mast. With her grove acting as the perfect cover, he knew they would be shielded if Dartboard Eyebrow tried to climb the ladder leading to the kitchen.

Still, he knew that if he was caught tormenting a bikini-clad Nami, he'd spend the rest of the afternoon fighting off the 'vengeance of love'.

Before he knew it, his large build had pinned Nami against the back of the main mast. He towered over her otherwise petite frame, with only her breasts keeping him from pressing his entire body flat against hers-

No, it wasn't just her breasts.

She had been holding her arsenal of ice cubes close to her torso, and the impact of his abs against her hands caused the entire bundle to tumble out and slither down their pelvises, thighs and crash down onto their feet.

There wasn't any time to react to the chilling assault when the Sunny's residential asshole called up from down below, "_Is something wrong, Nami-san?_"

"U-Uh, n-no!" She chirped frantically.

Zoro observed the way her eyes couldn't seem to focus, felt the way her entire being shivered against his. The way she wiggled and squirmed… caught his attention more so than some melting pellets of ice ever could. With his brow arched curiously to see what she would do next, he merely listened when she was further questioned by the blond idiot, "_Oh, it sounded like you were being chased by something up there._"  
"I-It was a bug!" Nami lied while staring him dead in the eye. When he smirked at her fib, she made sure to add on defiantly. "Just a really big pest! But I got him."

"_That's my Nami-swan!_" Was the idiot's reply, completely fooled by her words.

Zoro, however, wasn't. Instead, he couldn't help but notice the way Nami's right shoulder shuffled ever so slightly just as she started to regain control of herself after the initial impact their bodies had. A twinge went off inside of him, warning him not to let her strike!

His large hand rose high enough to catch her wrist just in time, and clasped between her fingers was a stray cube of ice.

Admiring her moxie was one thing. Wanting to avoid being pelted again was another. He knew he was in complete control of both her actions and the last of her arsenal, so Zoro did the only thing he could think of: he brought her hand to his mouth and made her feed him the ice. It crossed his lips and instantly chilled his tongue, yet he managed to stick the tip of it out and lick the slight dribble off of his mouth easily enough. All the while, Nami's eyes were wide while she observed the way he chomped on the remainder of her supply.

"Hm, maybe you were right: it is kind of refreshing." He admitted with an evident edge to his tone, one that was meant to grate on her last nerve.

No longer surprised or amused, Nami tore her wrist free and shoved at his sweat-slick chest. "You moron!" She scolded him with a fury that was most likely hot enough to rival the sun she was trying to protect him from in the first place. "Burn, for all I care! I hope you're aching the next time you have to fight someone!" Then, she placed all of her weight onto her heels and stomped away once again.

Zoro was ready to let her go stew in her anger, return to his training and move on with his day. When he turned to face his resting mallet, though, he felt something cool run along the edge of one of his abs…

Before she could turn the corner around her grove, the swordsman picked the melting ice out of his haramaki, aimed it at her bikini bottoms and threw it across the deck…!

"AH!"

"_Nami-swan!?_"

Scooping up his mallet, Roronoa Zoro wore the cheekiest grin and prepared himself. "One thousand fifty-one…!"

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**Author's Note:**

Starting tomorrow, the _**ZoNa Summer Festival**_ will begin! For eight hot summer days, we have a themes to whet your ZoNa appetite! Here they are: 

**July 1st** \- _Ice Cubes_

**July 2nd** \- _Yukata_

**July 3rd** \- _Paradise_

**July 4th** \- _Skinny Dipping_

**July 5th** \- _Sleeping Under the Stars_

**July 6th** \- _Summer Rain_

**July 7th** \- _Barbecue_

**July 8th** \- _Mermaid_

If you decide you'd like to join in, send me a PM here with a link to your story! Or, if you're on tumblr, just **'at' ZoNamiEvents** and use the **'hashtag' ZoNaSummerFestival** so I can find your story!


	2. Yukata

**ZoNa Summer Festival!**

_**Theme:**_ Yukata  
_**Rating:**_ PG-14 / T  
_**Word Count:**_ 1,669 words

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It was another humid night, but Nami blamed her crew's adventurous spirit for the unbearable heat she was enduring. Even as she stood in front of the open refrigerator, she felt very little relief. The navigator in her yearned to get back out on the sea, where the ocean's breeze could cascade over the Sunny, making the mid-summer evening much easier to bear. Instead, they were docked at an island that was celebrating the longest night of the year with a grandiose festival and the Mugiwara crew just had to attend.

That's why she was dressed in such an extravagant yukata at such a late hour.

Well, that, and it helped her survive the heat.

She hadn't even turned the lights on when she entered the kitchen. The fridge's bulb illuminated its shelves well enough for her to pick out an iced cold can of beer, her hand swiping it up swiftly as if it were some hidden treasure. Once the frigid metal met her skin, Nami inhaled deeply due to the stark difference in temperature. In a good way.

She'd do just about anything to feel that chill run over her entire body.

The kitchen was empty, but even if it wasn't, Nami would have done anything in that moment to feel some kind of relief. She adjusted the collar of her yukata until it moved off of her collar bone and fell upon the curve of her shoulders. The upper swells of her beasts were able to meet the chill released from the refrigerator yet it wasn't enough. She needed something stronger!

That was when she had an idea: Nami took the chilled can in her hand and rolled it over her chest. "Ah!" She whispered a slight sound of shock when the condensation along the metal splashed down on her skin. She thought that the cold touch might make her freeze, until her head fall backwards almost instinctively, exposing the entire length of her neck. Quickly, she guided the beer can along her jugular and up to the edge of her jaw.  
"Mmm." Her relief was so instantaneous, she moaned aloud. She didn't only think of her satisfaction, she released a noise of pleasure into the room.

"Nami?"

For once, she genuinely believed she had said too much.

Craning her neck to face the doorway, she saw a large, stocky figure entering the room. Before her mind could even comprehend who had joined her in the kitchen, she asked in a shy voice, "Zoro?"

It was indeed the swordsman, evident in the heavy way he walked towards her awkward stance at the refrigerator. Nami felt her heartbeat thumping against the cold can in her hand. Despite how embarrassed she was to be caught moaning over it, she couldn't dare move it off of her body or she'd be burning up once again.

However, of all the people to find her, Zoro was the least interested in what she was doing to herself. When he finally reached her side, he perused the selection of alcohol in the fridge and took his sweet time doing so. In order to stick his head right inside it, he was forced to place his hand on Nami's back so he could edge around her without knocking her over.

That large palm of his was like a heating pad resting against her obi.

"Agh, Zoro." She whined rather childishly. It felt like the warmth in her decorative belt was being trapped within her outfit and the only logical thing to do to alleviate herself was to tear back the fabric of her skirt so that the bottom half of her yukata was open now too. Essentially, without her obi keeping her festival outfit on, she'd be nude in front of the swordsman just to find some kind of relief from the heat.

"Hot?" He asked her when he finally settled on his drink. As he pulled back from the fridge, she noticed that he hadn't removed his hand from her back.

Growing exhausted from the humidity that was plaguing her, Nami groaned, "Yeah, aren't you?"

He didn't answer her with words. Instead, Zoro gently rattled the can in his hand to show her that he was craving a cold one just as much as she had been. She watched as he cracked it open with one hand and took a few hefty swigs of his beer like the fanatic he was. Curious to see if she could pull off the same trick, she pulled her can out of the crook of her neck-

"Here." Was all he said to warn her before he placed his cool, half empty beer against her exposed thigh.  
Nami, so startled by his indirect touch, backed herself up against the counter. The edge of it met her backside - underneath his still present hand - and compelled her to arch her body until the lining of her yukata pulled farther and farther apart over her breasts. "Wh-What are you…?"

There was a question to be asked, but she was enjoying the coldness of his touch far too much.

Since she couldn't dare to fight him off, Zoro seemed to take that as a wordless kind of permission. His fingers grabbed onto her thigh and raised it up to his waist without any formal warning. The moment he stepped in between her legs, a swirl of something sinister rolled around deep in her belly.

Nami found her need to be cooled down suddenly replaced by a darker desire to feel the heat of Zoro's skin on hers…

Until the sudden crackling of fireworks went off outside, reminding her that there was in fact a world outside of the kitchen.

"Zoro, the… festival. We have to go back." It was her weakest rebuttal if she ever heard one. Tone passive, language soft, she knew she was fighting him off with an ounce of believability. It was the craze of the humidity, she told herself, that was causing her common sense to evaporate. But when Zoro's broad chest was directly in front of her, peeking out of his own navy blue yukata and threatening to compress her against the kitchen counter, why on Earth would she push him away?

Why wouldn't she want to see what he had in mind?

Why would she repel him when he took another sip of his drink and moved in closer, bringing his lips to hers so she could have a taste of that cold, refreshing beer?

Another boom outside forced her to throw her eyes wide open, and Nami realized that there was no beer to taste, no man to manhandle her. It took her a moment to focus her vision, but she quickly realized that she was waking up in the Women's Quarters and that the setting of the heated midnight kitchen was nothing more than a dream.

"W-What?" Nami sputtered as she sat up right. The jarring difference in what she understood to be reality hit her like a ton of bricks, and her clouded mind began frantically looking around the room for the swordsman who had been with her moments ago.

"Nami?" A rather serene-sounding voice called to her while she flailed. Immediately, she knew that it wasn't Zoro, and her disappointed took over her. Nami slowly turned her neck so she could acknowledge her roommate Robin in the sitting area of their bedroom. Startled and concerned, she quickly added. "Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah, I just," - all within a single moment, Nami went from disappointed, to sad, then angry, followed by furious and finally, she landed on being disheartened - "had a really weird dream."

"Did you want to talk about it?" offered Robin, closing her book to offer her undivided attention.

Nami rubbed her forehead as she grumbled, "No, it was just really strange. But, it did remind me of one thing."  
"Oh?"

"We need to buy yukata." Nami explained and she could feel the blush rising up in her cheeks as the words left her mouth…

Mouth…

Lips…

Zoro's lips had been so close to reaching hers before she woke up…!

"I-In case we go to any festivals on a summer island, or something."

"Sounds like this strange dream was rather helpful, then." Robin said, her tone hinting that she might have been amused by the conversation they were having. Then, she picked up her book and resumed to whatever passage she had been reading before she had been distracted.

Meanwhile, still sitting under a bundle of sheets in bed, Nami eyed her friend with bewilderment. 'Helpful' didn't seem like the right word to use. Not after it made her think about her crew mate - one of her oldest ones, at that! - in such a perverse way. Summertime was always coupled with spells of humidity, some even dry enough to make her feel faint. Even a summer-born child such as herself felt that there were sunny days that were insufferably hot!

But she'd never dreamt of nearly stripping herself naked in front of anyone before in a meager attempt to cool off, and she most definitely didn't dream about doing so in front of Roronoa Zoro.

It must have been because of that escapade with the ice cubes! He had shown her a side to him that had caused some kind of reaction in her. Something about the fiendish way he toyed with her and fought with her and took control made her feel...like she enjoyed that kind of behavior, especially when exhibited by him. Arguing with Zoro and pushing his buttons could almost be considered a past time for her. However, this reaction she was having to that one moment with him by her tangerine grove was nearly too much to take.

Nami threw her sheets off of her body and rose from her bed with a sigh. She felt defeated as she admitted out loud, "I'm going to take a cold bath." She knew she needed one if she had any intention of genuinely cooling herself down.


	3. Paradise

_**ZoNa Summer Festival**_

_Theme:_ Paradise  
_Rating:_ PG / K  
_Word Count:_ 2,769 words

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Zoro was only one sip deep into his drink at the bar when an inquisitive murmur caught his attention. "Say, you look really familiar."

Brow arched, his mug to his lips, He stared down the bartender and her studious leering. He immediately recoiled and lowered his drink in order to answer them as fast as he could, "Uh, yeah?"

The crow's feet around her eyes pulled tightly as her frown lines tugged down. Zoro thought she had given up when she ripped her beady eyes away from him, until she placed her attention on his crew mate, "You do too. Have we met somewhere before?"

"It's our first time on this island." He tried to distract her with the truth.

The sharp gasp she emitted proved he had failed. The mess of silver curls on her head bounced around her face when it finally dawned on her. "You're Roronoa Zoro, aren't you? And you - you're Nami. I'm a big fan of your wanted posters."

"Thank...you." feigning graciousness, he could hear the way the navigator responded with apprehension.

The woman behind the counter didn't seem to notice. She was still too excited to have them in her bar. "The name's Venus. Welcome to the Wedge."

"Nice to meet you Venus. I'm glad we found such a friendly place for my birthday." Nami sighed happily. Zoro side-eyed her as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and leaned forward with the biggest grin encompassing her face. He knew what her goal was.

But apparently, Venus was easily taken by her nonchalant behaviour. "Is it really? Well then, the next round's on me."

"How kind of you!" squealed the birthday girl.

When the bartender turned away, Zoro made sure to whisper to her, "What a sneaky trick."

"Hey," she shot back immediately behind her hand. "Do you want an extra mug to drink, or not?"

Zoro saw her point right away and returned to an upright position in his seat.

The place was rather lively in his opinion, most likely a popular scene for the locals of the island. A well kept dive, the Wedge was exactly the type of place he liked to drink at: cozy, lively enough to have some kind of energy charged up inside but quiet enough that he could drink in peace. If Venus wanted to intrude on their conversation for a little while and offer them a free drink in the process, he didn't have any right to complain.

"So where's the rest of the Straw Hat crew? They ain't celebrating with you?" wondered Venus as she pulled out two icy-looking mugs. The sight alone made Zoro crave his next drink, compelling him to down whatever beer he had left in front of him.

Nami took over the conversation while he chugged. "Nah, we're the heavy drinkers of the crew. If I want to drink my body weight and then some, I'm going out with this guy."

The affirming slap on his shoulder was not something Zoro enjoyed.

Venus, however, chuckled with great amusement. "I knew you were my favourites for a reason! I've had every version of your posters posted on that back wall ever since you were given bounties. You've really come a long way in the last few years."

Such a nostalgic comment made Zoro turn to face Nami and he wasn't at all surprised that she always looked in his direction. It was like they were silently observing one another while imagining the first version of each other that they had met. She had always been cunning, her cleverness her greatest asset at any point in time. Nevertheless, the girl he met in Orange Town - an ironic name if he ever heard one - could not compare to the woman who sat next to him on her birthday.

Thinking about her in such a way made a certain word he never really used pop into his head: flourish.

"We're mostly alive due to stubbornness." Zoro admitted with a cheeky smirk. When Nami didn't immediately scold him for his summarization of their adventures, he knew she agreed.

In fact, she made sure to tack on, "Our captain set a precedent that we can do whatever we want, so long as we make it out alive."  
"And it's been working out pretty well so far." Zoro pointed out, nudging his empty mug towards Venus's side of the counter.

The older woman got the hint and reached for the two mugs she had resting in front of her. Filling them up as she carried on talking, she scoffed. "I'll say. You've all got some pretty lofty ambitions if you're willing to take on the enemies that you do."

Disclosing their dreams easily enough, Nami admitted, "It's easy to dream big when your captain is determined to find One Piece and become the King of the Pirates."

Venus didn't let her stun stop her from delivering their new drinks. The shock in her violet-colored eyes was obvious, though. "I suppose that's true. So you're all doing your damnedest to cause a ruckus no matter where you go or who you meet, huh?"

Zoro quickly guaranteed her, "Not here, though. This beer's really good."

"Happy to hear that," Venus laughed softly at his promise. "With what I've seen from your crew, I think you've got what it takes to do just about anything."

"That's what we keep telling ourselves." Nami concurred after she released a satisfied 'ah'. He knew she was a huge fan of cold beer, so she didn't need to show her enjoyment for Zoro to know that she was having a great time.

But then, the mood took a bit of a nose dive when Venus inquired, "Any idea what you'll be looking forward to afterwards?"

Sloppily, in unison, both of the Straw Hats at the bar responded, "Huh?"

Taking a moment to rest, the barkeep leaned on her forearms until she was nestled against her countertop comfortably. Then, she explained, "I don't think there's anyone out there on the open seas that's got what it takes to do what your crew can do. So, have any of you thought about what you'll do after you make it to the end of the road? What happens when your captain becomes the King of the Pirates?"

It was too broad a concept for Zoro to take, if the truth be told. For a man like him who trained everyday with Mihawk's face in mind, who accepted the challenge of every enemy at a moment's notice, imagining what life would be like after Luffy achieved his dream was not something he thought of often. He was much more interested in finding the thrill of the battle he was in or working hard to be ready for the next one. To wonder what kind of satisfaction he'd find if his dream was already obtained was something he didn't let himself dwell on for fear of becoming blinded by his passion.

Sure, the odds of that all of their dreams would be achieved at the same time were possible, but it was very slim.

What was he going to do if Luffy became King of the Pirates but he hadn't beaten Mihawk yet and claimed his title?

Unable to find an answer, he faced Nami. She was much more articulate than him, so he hoped that she had an answer ready. There was hesitation in her big brown eyes, yet she didn't allow the lull in the conversation to carry on for very long. Poised, she replied, "Well, my dream is to make a map of the entire world, so I'll need to keep going until I make my dream come true."

When Venus didn't start praising Nami the moment she finished speaking, Zoro realized she was awaiting his answer too. Having been put on the spot, he answered, "I'm going to become the world's greatest swordsman. If I can't beat Dracule Mihawk beforehand, I guess I'm going to have to go look for him."

Venus appeared to feel complex emotions over their answers. With her brows knitted and her smile having fallen, she asked them both, "So you're just along for the ride with your captain?"

"Yeah," Zoro assumed that it was fair for her to word it that way. By this point, however, he was growing rather tired of the conversation. The urge to be protective of Nami was the only thing keeping him present in the moment. After all, having some strange woman chastise them for not thinking about their futures at twenty-one was really condescending to him.

If it wasn't for the free drink, he might have told her to piss off.

"Well, ain't that sweet? You tell your crew that they're all welcomed her any time." Venus ensured them as she pushed off of the countertop and quickly strolled away.

Zoro watched her go like a guard dog and only planned to take a sip of his drink when he knew she was distracted by another customer.  
"We've already skipped a few islands," Nami said softly, clearly lost in thought. "So I'd have to go back and visit places we missed."

Zoro huffed, "Yeah, I guess so."

"I wonder if everyone would want to go with me?" The question could have been open-ended, but her tone implied that she wanted an answer.

"Why wouldn't they?" he grumbled in response. This wasn't a topic of discussion he was fond of, he knew now, as it meant thinking about what was beyond the dream he had been fighting to achieve for his entire life.

Knowing Nami wanted to dive into such unknown waters made him feel uncomfortable, to put it lightly.

He took her explanation as a sign that he could down his beer while she spoke, meaning he could hopefully leave the rest of the conversation to a more inebriated version of himself. "I don't think Brook, Robin or Franky are going to want to do anything more than settle down once we're done. I mean, Brook just wants to see Laboon. And Robin…"

"Hm?" He asked her to carry on while guzzling his drink.

Nami whipped her head in her direction just so she could frown at him. "Unless she's got another Poneglyph to find or Franky has another boat to make, they're gonna want to find a place to put down roots. Get it?"

He knew his silence would be enough to tell her that he didn't.

"Ugh, men." Nami groaned.

He groaned in response to her disappointment. Throwing his mug down, he shot back. "Well the rest of your crew mates are men so I guess you want any of them to go back with you."

"Sanji's goal is to see the All Blue, but after that, he could just end up going back to Pudding or the Baratie." Nami pointed out.

Zoro whispered to himself, "Good riddance."

She didn't hear his insult, so she kept going. "Once Usopp believes his the bravest warrior on the sea, he can just do whatever he wants. We both know he should go back and see Kaya though, that poor girl."

That, Zoro agreed with. "He'll have actual stories to tell her now, not just some made up lies."

"Maybe he'll take Chopper to see her, make sure she's doing well." Nami mused.

When her tone of voice dropped into a lifeless state, Zoro couldn't help but notice how her mood suddenly became pensive and withdrawn. Her face looked like it was incapable of smiling while her mind was so heavily occupied. They went out for drinks whenever they could and sometimes, their conversations did become serious. However, it wasn't usually to the point of her retreating inside of herself where he couldn't reach.

Trying to turn her mood around, he offered her an idea. "I'll bet you my entire debt that Luffy will go anywhere in the world with you. If you're out on the open seas, he'll be there."

The mention of their captain tugged Nami free from the shackles of whatever dark thoughts she was thinking. To his surprise though, the suggestion made her sigh. "You may be right. I have no idea what that idiot is going to do once he's got his treasure. I bet he's as clueless as you are."

Her accurate observation of him made him bashful. Zoro didn't know what to do while she finished off her own beer, so he took the time until she finished her last gulp to come up with a response. "So? I have my goal, and then I'll have to fight to keep it."

Nami opened her mouth to speak until she actually mauled over his words. Then, she said, "I guess that makes sense. Mihawk has to fight you off if he wants to keep the title now. Once you get it, you'll be challenged all the time probably."

"Only I won't hide on some secret island forever." Subtly, only because his idol couldn't hear him, he made a dig at Mihawk's character.

"A secret island?" Only when she asked the question did he realize that he never told her where he was for the two years they were all apart. It actually astonished Zoro that he never shared any details about his training with her before. In all fairness, he knew nothing of her time away from the crew either. Still, he genuinely thought that it was obvious where he had been, given the question Kuma had posed.

"Mihawk lives on this island called Kuraigana. It's dark and full of monsters." explained the swordsman, recalling his days training there in a flash.

"Sounds like it suits you perfectly." He thought he heard her say.

"Huh!?" Zoro challenged.

Avoiding his fury entirely, Nami pressed on. "So you're going to travel the world and fight every swordsman you see? That's going to be no different from now."

That one remark gave him an idea, and Zoro could see the solution to whatever dreary thoughts she had been thinking. In an instant, he felt charged by the words he planned to say next because he truly believed that he had discovered the answer to any worries she may have had. "Yeah. I'll essentially be a swordsman for hire, if you can afford me."

Nami couldn't hide the surprise on her face when she heard his declaration. Only, instead of applauding his sly suggestion, she concocted yet another fiendish way to take advantage of him. Smirking from ear to ear, she decreed, "Once you have that title, you'll be able to work your debt off to me! Your rate would help you pay it off in at least, what, maybe ten or twenty years"

"What the hell!?" Her calculations sounded absolutely absurd! Zoro couldn't begin to imagine a situation in which Mihawk was being exploited the way that he was by Nami the Cat Burglar, the Straw Hat's navigator, the most difficult person he'd ever met!

Ignorant of his plight, she carried on with her ecstatic predictions. "It'll be great! I'll be making my map and you'll be there to protect me, while also showing yourself off to any opponent you meet. We'll make quite the team. Plus, we both know you can't go anywhere without me."

"I was away from you for two years and I was fine!" Zoro shouted his point so loudly, he noticed that Venus was eyeing them from across the bar.

Nami must have noticed his darting eyes, as she looked over her shoulder towards the bartender who started the mess of the conversation they were having, then happily cheered, "Venus! Another round here, please! We've got something else to celebrate!"

"You got it." complied the older woman, her wrinkles on display as she smiled at the two of them.

Zoro scowled at both of them. "Sure we do." He said sarcastically. Flippant and irritated, he made it clear that he wasn't on board with her plans with not only his voice, but his reclining body posture too.

But as usual, Nami had her mind set on her ideal plan and she refused to see beyond it. Her sigh this time was indeed a happy one, preceding her proclamation, "Imagine - I'll be even farther along with making a map of the world, and you'll be the world's greatest swordsman. It'll be perfect."

"Oh yeah," he mocked her as their drinks placed down in front of them. Lifting his mug high as a fake toast, Zoro's frown sunk into his jawline when she still clicked her glass against his, making him tack on an insincere, "It'll be paradise."


	4. Skinny Dipping

_**ZoNa Summer Festival**_

_Theme:_ Skinny Dipping  
_Rating:_ T / PG-13  
_Word Count:_ 2,175 words

* * *

'_I think everyone is finally asleep!_' Nami thought, brimming with excitement. Sitting in her plush pink robe in at the vanity in the Women's Quarters, she eyed Robin's slumbering form to make sure that she wouldn't be caught sneaking out. Her plan was rather elaborate and she couldn't risk even one person catching her in the act.

Maneuvering her body to get out of the chair, she tiptoed over to the door the moment she knew she was safe and slipped out like a thief in the night. She couldn't help but smile as she regarded the way that the full moon's beams washed over the different decks of the Sunny.

They were docked.

The water was calm.

It was the best time for her to go for a swim.

Nami rushed down the stairs from the second floor, past the Men's Quarters on the first, and threw open the latch to the Soldier Dock System with all of her might. She acted as if the grass on the lawn deck was hiding a spring system when she leapt down through the opening instead of making use of the ladder. Her landing was a bit heavy due to the height of her fall, but the ocean breeze that greeted her was kind enough to rid her of any lingering worries.

The view from the open channel was so gorgeous. Nami had orchestrated the entire day so that she would be responsible for closing the gate, only to leave it open in the event that she was brave enough to go for a swim in the sea. Nevermind the large bath tub the Sunny had, or the inflatable pool she could have blown up and attached to the ship. When the ocean was calm on such a calm night, she was eager to take advantage of the opportunity for a dip in the waters.

Naked.

Nami dropped her pink robe and immediately looked over her shoulder. "Relax," she told herself, trying to sound confident in order to get ride of any lingering shyness. "After an entire day of planning this, it'd be a shame to turn back now."

She knew she was right, so to silence her nervousness, she just had to throw herself in.

Nami stepped over the ropes that tied her waver to the walls of Channel 1. The leaping motion felt like a countdown: one, two, and then three! She threw her nude body off of the small dock and dove into the freezing cold waters of the ocean gleefully. The chilly temperature couldn't diminish the thrill she was experiencing.

In fact, she braved the lazy tide and paddled her legs behind her. It was rather dark under the crest of the waves, yet the full moon made the surface glow with a welcoming light that encouraged her to swim wherever she liked, knowing that she could emerge for a breath whenever she needed it.

For someone who regularly wore as little as she did, it was still completely freeing to feel the underwater current run over her bare nipples. It grazed her inner thighs softly while she kicked through the still waters and she couldn't help but notice that it tickled. It was a much more sensual experience than she had ever known - especially in comparison to the kiddie pool she enjoyed once with Brook - which made her feel a surge of gratitude towards herself, that she had taken the plunge to do something so crazy.

Nami rolled around weightless before she rose to the surface. Breathing heavily, her hands reflexively flew to her bangs and threw them back. The droplets traveling down her neck and over her breasts caught her attention and she suddenly found them fascinating. There was no colorful fabric concealing her body. It was just her bare skin glistening in the moonlight as she waded in the sea. She loved herself, that was no secret. Nevertheless, nothing could quite compare to sensation of floating bare naked in the ocean, with no one to ogle her or stare at her lewdly while she appreciated herself.

A rather loud splash startled her out of her pleasant daze and the once proudly nude woman hide her breasts with her arms. It didn't take much for her to spot the residual spray of whatever had collided with the surface of the sea: someone had jumped off of the Sunny to join her!  
'_Please don't be Sanji-kun! Please not Sanji-kun!_'

"Ah!" She screamed, startled when a pair of hands grabbed onto her waist from underwater. There were massive and somehow still rough despite being submerged-  
'_Is that…?_'

"What," bellowed an infuriated Roronoa Zoro as he revealed himself by shooting up out of the water like he was some territorial demon planning to kidnap her. "The hell are you doing!? Swimming out here at night?"

Her nakedness was still on her mind, but she also never backed down from taking on a disgruntled Zoro. "I'm fine, you idiot! Who jumps off of a ship like that!?"

"Well I had to make sure you weren't drowning!" He asserted.

"I" - intentional or not, his grip tightened when he mentioned her drowning and her thighs pressed themselves together for some reason she couldn't comprehend - "wasn't drowning! I just went for a swim! Naked, by the way!"

That response stole the wind from his sails instantly. "N-Naked?"

"Yeah! I'm skinny dipping! And you're ruining it by inserting your-"

"Hey! Who's down there!?"

Another person had discovered her not-so-secret swim and Nami was furious. It sounded like it could have been Sanji, but she didn't have the chance to determine whether or not she was correct.

Zoro placed a swift hand on her head and shoved her under the surface. Nami was startled by his rash action, compelling her to claw at him in protest. It didn't matter if he as protecting her from the one person she didn't want to know she was swimming in her birthday suit, she-

When her nails snagged the rim of Zoro's pants, Nami realized that he wasn't taking advantage of the skinny-dipping moment.

She felt like a fiend and it was oh so easy to embrace that side of her. Instead of clawing at him in contempt, her sneaky hands grabbed at the excess fabric of his pants and tugged without any remorse, similarly to how he pushed her underwater. He was so determined to keep her hidden that he couldn't fight her off as she undressed him. In actuality, she could barely see what she was doing due to the time of night, but that would only make his reaction funnier.

The exact moment he relieved the pressure from her head, Nami surfaced with the speed of a bullet leaving a gun. "What the-"  
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" whispered-yelled Zoro.

Confused, Nami hissed, "Why are we whispering!?"

He didn't answer her directly. Instead, he explained himself while scolding her. "I was trying to make sure that blond dumbass didn't see you and you respond by trying to take my pants off!?"

"Because," she hummed her response, smiling wide. "I'm out here skinny dipping and if you're not going to join me, you can just return to the ship."

"Tch, that's stupid." Was his bashful retort. His gritted teeth were on full display, and yet he didn't move at all to fix the way he was dressed.

Nami was more than prepared to interfere with any attempt he made to become decent, however, they were interrupted by a particular chef once again. "Hey, marimo!" shouted a rather cranky-sounding Sanji.

She knew what to expect now: he was going to dunk her under the water again! All Nami saw was his shoulder rise and she knew she wasn't about to go through that one more time. In a desperate attempt to stay above the water - to avoid drowning at the expense of the man who supposedly dove in the ocean to keep her safe - she did the only thing she could think of in then and there.

She threw herself at Zoro and wrapped her arms around his body so that she was both hidden from view and impossible to push underwater.

In doing so, she had unintentionally compressed their entirely naked bodies against one another, feeling absolutely everything on her submerged flesh.

So shocked by her impulsive decision, she was nearly frightened when Zoro barked back with a very emotionally-charged, "What!?"

Oblivious to the turmoil they were experiencing in the sea, Sanji blathered, "Make sure you clean up any water you track on the deck. I better not fall when I get up to make breakfast for the ladies!"

The mention of the chef making food for her urged her to look up at Zoro, who surprisingly was already leering down at her. His expression hooded, she couldn't make out what might have been going on through his mind. Even his tone was empty when he responded, "Fine." There was no way to get a read on what he was feeling about their awkward position.

'_Why does it need to be awkward though?_' That brave voice inside that had endorsed the reckless decision to jump into the ocean had returned, this time with a different initiative.

She was confident in her own skin.

He had an attractive body that he worked on religiously.

Why should either of them feel any kind of timidness about being pressed up against each other the way that they were?

'_Because there's something stirring inside of you that isn't as simple as that._' Warned a secret voice inside of her that she couldn't tell if it was nice of nefarious.

As fearless as she thought she was tonight, she didn't dare touch upon whatever that sentiment could mean.

That didn't mean she wasn't still fascinated by what was happening, though. Nami didn't feel him flinch or recoil when he could have easily pushed her away, which she thought was a positive sign. For the man who had never succumbed to her Happiness Punch, Zoro's stillness was implying to her that he was rather enamored by her in the moment too.

'_Maybe there's more behind his promise of staying with you for longer than you thought possible._' This time, both the voices inside of her ganged up on the unsuspecting Nami as they presented her with a rather bold concept.

Zoro had promised that he'd stay by her side when they were out for her birthday, and she had never intended to look into the possibility of something more being behind his words.

However, maybe there was…?

"Grab my pants." Was what he said to shatter the tension between them, blindsiding her with the most outrageous request.  
"H-Huh? Uh, sure." Nami could only obey his demand when it seemed so out of the blue. She felt him fidget against her, which caused her cheeks to warm with a very thick blush. She didn't need to do much for him as he wiggled free of the now watered own pair of pants he had been wearing before she decided to take them off. Her hand reached out for them when they floated slowly to the surface.

Once she had them in her grasp, he snatched her up with one arm around her waist and Nami genuinely thought he was embracing her. The moment she believed intimacy was involved in their connection, she found herself panicking. If he was going to suggest that they acknowledge what was between them while they were bare naked, while he held her tightly against his body on such a cool summer night, she didn't know what she'd do…!

Forever going against her expectations, Zoro did not oblige her in the slightest. He spun himself around so that he was facing the Sunny and began to swim towards Channel 1's open door with her fastened to his hip.

Nami, riled up beyond her imagination, pounded her fists into his shoulder. His arm was resting quite comfortably between her breasts and her legs were fastened along his side as she fought the pressure of the speed that he swam at. Whining with obvious deviance, she proclaimed, "You jerk! Let me go!"

"You can't swim out in the middle of the ocean in the middle of the night on your own." Zoro stated as if a navigator could possibly be oblivious to that fact.

What infuriated her more so, however, was his emotionless expression, tone, and overall demeanor. How could he be impervious to the… the… intimacy of what they just shared?

She knew he wasn't emotionally intelligent, but his body had to have felt something… right?

"I hate you so much sometimes." She grumbled closely to his ear. The water splashing around their bodies didn't guarantee that he heard her insult, and honestly, she didn't care either way.

If Zoro could ignore what just happened between them, then she was a fool.

_She _was the idiot, for thinking there might be something between them.

Nami intended to never make that mistake ever again.


	5. Sleeping Under the Stars and Summer Rain

_**ZoNa Summer Festival**_

_Theme:_ Sleeping Under the Stars & Summer Rain  
_Rating:_ K / G  
_Word Count:_ 2,825 words

* * *

_**Note:**_As I could not post a chapter on July 5th, this chapter combines the themes of two days. Enjoy!

* * *

Hiking was something Zoro enjoyed because it broke the up his repetitive training regiment. He thought about going off on his own the moment he saw the mountainous range of the island they were going to be stopping at next. The New World was large but Luffy's gut was larger, and restocking so soon after their last stopover made the swordsman realize that he hadn't taken full advantage to stretch his legs last time they were docked.

Apparently, neither had their navigator.

"It's this way," her judgemental tone of voice caught up to him faster than her scrawny legs could carry her. "Idiot."

Growling after enduring her lobbing insults at him all afternoon, Zoro spun around to bite back at her. "I'm not even going anywhere specifically! How can I be going the wrong way!?"

"Because if you take ten more steps through these trees, you'll reach the edge of the island and fall into the ocean. Can't you feel the sea breeze?" Nami wondered, sounding honestly suspicious of his capabilities if he was really about to plummet into the sea.

He could feel a vein in his forehead throbbing due to the frustration boiling up inside of him. His so-called hike through the lush jungle was more of a stroll than a hike due to his nagging guide. The entire crew voted that he bring her with him and he was forced to do so. Now, while climbing over roots and trying to find the ground through the overwhelming amount of foliage around him, all Zoro wanted to do was return to the Sunny and head straight to his gym.

Away from her.

Intentionally, hopefully unnoticeably, he had been avoiding Nami ever since their...naked swim. He didn't know why - he wasn't afraid of her or anything - but it was easier for him to pretend that he was paying her as little attention as possible when she...had nearly made him stand to attention the other night.

"If you have no destination, what's the point of wandering around here? We're lucky we haven't been eaten alive by bugs by this point." Said the woman in short shorts that were laced up along the sides and a stretched out band around her breasts.

Compared to her, his simple faded t-shirt and cargo shorts must have seemed much too modest. If any bugs were going to target either of them, she must have looked like a damn buffet.

"Not everyone has to walk with a destination in mind, you know. Shouldn't a navigator like exploring?" Zoro snidely asked. Just as he surely pushed her buttons, there was a large tree branch blocking their path. It irritated him to no end that the polite thing to do was to hold the massive branch above both of their heads so they could pass through easily, and he wore his frustration plainly on his face.

As Nami walked by him, she retorted, "I _do_, but we've been 'exploring' for a while now and the sun is going to go down soon."  
"So?" Was his answer to her concerns.

Nami eyed him, clearly miffed. "Following you placed us on the other side of the island from the Sunny and it's-!" What he thought was going to be a lecture suddenly ended with a sharp gasp.  
"What?" Zoro inquired, scanning the encroaching trees and bushes to the best of his ability.

"It's about to pour," Nami whispered.

"Huh?"

"There's a huge amount of rain coming. I can feel it - we only have a few minutes before it touches down. We need to find some shelter!" She shouted with a hint of worry in her tone.

Zoro shrugged off her concern easily enough. "It's just some rain. Just because your hair's going to get wet doesn't mean we have to duck and cover."

Suddenly, two fists had grabbed hold of his collar and dragged him down a few inches until his body was hunched over. Brown eyes sat directly in front of his face, burning while she explained. "When I say it's going to pour, I mean there's going to be a torrential downpour. We _have_ to find shelter right now!"

"All right!" Zoro yelled in her face. The proximity to her set him on edge more so than it ever had before, which angered him thoroughly. In the past, if she had cautioned him so strongly, he would have picked her up in his arms and ran until they found a place to wait out the storm. However, it now felt like he was encroaching on her personal space and, in doing so, forcing himself to confront something he wasn't prepared to handle.

"C'mon!" Nami demanded when he didn't say or do anything else. She let go of his shirt as she took the lead. Racing off, Nami chose to stop entertaining him and she took over the role of navigator once again. He was expected to follow after her until they found a shelter of some kind. It wasn't until he heard the warning of a booming rumble of thunder overhead that Zoro realized how credible her warning was. Swiping away leaves and kicking up dirt as they ran, the two of them darted through the jungle in the hopes of finding anything remotely resembling a type of shelter.

Right when the path began to clear out somewhat, Zoro watched from behind as Nami steered herself to the right and bolted. Her sharp change in direction caused him to skid but he could only assume that the direction they were traveling in was unsafe, and she somehow knew that. The silence of their search somehow made the impending storm feel more ominous. They'd never been so awkward around each other before. Perhaps if he had simply ignored his nerves, if he had picked her up despite the urge not to, they'd at least be able to move faster on foot-

"There!" Zoro declared when he spotted something: a single layer of branches laying across a long piece of lumber, fastened to two trees that had been previously chopped down. It looked makeshift and dingy, but it was the best thing that they'd most likely find on such short notice.

"Are you crazy!?" Of course, Nami found something to complain about. "If that thing gets hit by lightning, we'll be dead!"

"What if we don't find anything better!?" Zoro pointed out.

"What if the person who made that comes back to find out we're borrowing it, and they kick us out into the rain!?" Nami bellowed.

She wasn't wrong. That was a possibility. Nevertheless, a storm was coming that put her on edge, meaning there wasn't time for a petty squabble and calculating possibilities. "Then that's their problem! If this thing is as bad as you think it'll be, we can't run around this entire jungle looking for a better option, Nami."

She knew he was right. He saw the recognition in those incredibly expressive eyes of hers. Though it alarmed him to think that he was suddenly paying attention to her in such a vigilant way, Nami decided to accept his reasonings and dove under the plank of strapped branches. Once she was seated, Zoro felt a rather heavy splash of water smack down on the back of his neck. He ended up imitating her by diving into the shelter too.

Then, that torrential downpour she mentioned crashed down upon the jungle like it had a bone to pick with it.

Pelting the shelter with a barrage of raindrops, the constantly drumming against the wooden surface drowned out the sounds of the rest of the world.

Again, the silence between them made Roronoa Zoro feel more awkward than he ever had in his entire life.

The air between their crouched bodies was thick, sizzling as if it was an attempt to convert itself into steam. The smell of the Earth being washed by the storm was usually so soothing to him that it made him wish he had entered the jungle alone if only so he could drown at the thoughts and feelings he'd be tempering down for the past few days. Drops of rainwater splashed onto his exposed toes through his sandals but he barely noticed them in comparison to the discomfort that consumed him when he was alone with Nami in the middle of nowhere for an undetermined amount of time.

Even though he wasn't socially apt at creating small talk, he was shocked that Nami released a fake yawn, putting on a facade to manufacture a situation where talking would be impossible. "I'm going to take a nap. Wake me up when the rain has stopped."

All Zoro had to do was glance at the ground they were sitting on to realize, "There's no way that'll be comfortable." She was a prissy woman, she needed a pillow beneath her head if she was going to sleep soundly.

The look she shot him said something to the contrary though. Her inner thoughts reached him in that moment, where he heard her think to herself, 'Nothing is more uncomfortable than this.'

By this, she meant...them.

Him.

Bashful over his inability to conquer whatever he was feeling, Zoro looked away from her as she prepared herself for her nap. It was so unnerving that a woman he'd known for so long was suddenly some sort of pariah to him. He went from placing his Wadou Ichimonji in her capable hands to resting his swords on his lap as he waited for the rain to stop. He went from being uninterested in her Happiness Punch to acting like he was frightened over her body more than he ever was scared of the monstrous Pica!

He scoffed before he realized that she might not be asleep yet. It would have been easy to be spiteful and choose not to care, however, Zoro was aware that she only came with him because she cared about his safety. For some reason, acknowledging that made his heart constrict in his chest. Even though she had badgered him the entire way, screaming at him about how inept his directional sense was, knowing that she wanted to waste her day tailing him triggered a response in him.

One that he doubt it would have triggered before.

Reacting to her naked body like this made no sense to him! He had never reacted to anyone like that before, not ever! Being apart of the Mugiwara crew had put him in some precarious situations and yet nothing lingered in his system the way that one intimate moment with Nami had. Maybe the key to it was the intimacy - a concept that was entirely foreign to him.

Would he define their promise to travel together even after his dream was achieved as intimate too? On the night of her birthday, he had promised to let her hire him when she continued to make her completed map of the entire world. She would definitely need the protection, based on the terrifying places they'd visited already in the New World. Committing however many more years to her was just a natural response. It wasn't meant to be a marriage proposal or anything! They were all chasing their dreams, so Zoro had committed to sticking with her until she completed hers. They'd have their own separate lives after that, wouldn't they?

A looming sensation of prophetic dread found its way into his gut and warned him that it might spend some time there.

It baffled Zoro wholeheartedly that he was reacting so strongly to the possibility that the two of them might drift apart someday. For a man who had no interest in the future that night at the Wedge, he was suddenly engrossed by the odd sensation that there could come a time when they were no longer together. Maybe it was because he always assumed that if he wasn't with the Mugiwara crew anymore, it was because he died in battle. However, if that happened, then Nami would have no one to travel the world with.

Nami would have no one to protect her.

Now, the dread in his stomach was slowly crawling up into his chest, looking to squeeze that troubled heart of his.

Zoro couldn't understand what on Earth was happening to him. With an unfounded amount of courage summoned, he turned to look at the woman who had been vexing him since the day he met her. Her shoulders rising and falling the way they were proved to him that she was indeed asleep, which almost impressed him. Still, when he regarded her the way he did in that moment, all he could think about was whether or not he could get a handle on what she had done to him. Would he be able to find his equilibrium and straighten it out, returning it to its former glory?

...Was there any way to do that aside from accepting that he couldn't look at her the same way as he did before the night in the ocean?

When she wasn't putting him down or screeching like a bat out of hell, Nami was a remarkable woman. That was something he had understood even when he only saw her as a friend. Now that the tectonic plates of his stone cold heart had shifted, Zoro couldn't help but think of her as something greater than a crew member or a partner in crime. It was scary to recognize that. If he had been standing, he might have wobbled the same way that his self-control was.

But instead, he was sitting underneath some random shelter in the middle of a jungle, watching over Nami like it was a task he would happily take on forever.

"Hmph." He grunted instead of laughing at himself, worried he could wake her. Maybe his crush was hyperbole that he invented because he was nearly at his breaking point of self-control when he felt her curvaceous form pressed so close to his. Perhaps he was delusional in hoping that she'd feel the same way, that she would want to explore what intimacy would be like between them. Zoro had no clue what the future meant for him now and, ironically, he suddenly couldn't see beyond the very instant in time that he was in.

So, he watched over her with appreciation rather than the disdain he first sat down with. He waited out the storm like it was nothing more than a drizzle that passed them by. In reality, the sun went down behind the storm clouds by the time the downpour ended. Carefully, he reached through the darkness of the night and ended up patting the back of Nami's thigh. "Hey."  
"Hm?" She grumbled in her huddled form on the ground.

"Come here." Was all he intended to say to her.

But the sleep-ridden Nami was confused by his order. Her shadowy form sat up in order to rest on her elbows just so she could vaguely see him as she whimpered a distraught, "What?"

"I said, come here. We' won't be heading back tonight."

"B-But I was sleeping-"

"Just come here, dammit." That fear he thought he vanquished reemerged when he had to face her once again. Sighing, Zoro knew he had a long way to go before he could tell her anything remotely related to how he truly felt.

As a compromise - for the sake of his pride and for her evident confusion - Zoro moved his hand over her leg until her found her hand near it on the jungle floor. He took it softly and guided her over to him. Slowly, cautiously on both of their ends, he led Nami into his lap. The clutter of their limbs made things rather awkward at first, but what else was new for them as of late? Eventually, she folded herself up in between her legs and found a comfortable place to rest her head on his chest. Right over his thundering heart.

"Mm, thank you." Nami murmured genuinely to him. Zoro would have responded, but he could tell by the way her voice faded out that she had fallen back asleep rather quickly in his presence. Gratefully, almost too eagerly, he wrapped his arms around her body to provide her with some warmth throughout the night. Then, with nothing else to do, he leaned back against the trunk of the dismantled tree.

"Huh." He said to no one in particular when he caught sight of some stars blinking at him through the trees that littered the jungle. With their leaves so full, it was shocking that he could spot anything beyond the branches overhead.

If they were on the Thousand Sunny, they could have had a better view.

If they were on the Thousand Sunny, he wouldn't have had this moment.

That realization alone was enough to put a smile on his face as he finally drifted off to sleep too.


	6. Barbecue

_**ZoNa Summer Festival**_

_Theme:_ Barbecue  
_Rating:_ T / PG-14  
_Word Count:_ 2,190 words

* * *

Nami didn't think it was necessary to have a 'celebratory barbecue' for returning to the Sunny after a night out in the jungle. Sanji, on the other hand, was adamant that it was vitally important. The crew had been forced to wait out the entire evening before they could look for her and the swordsman, and those stressful hours were torture for them. Or so she had been told.

It was the dramatic chef who explained all of this to her while preparing his portable grill on the shore of the island, so there wasn't any time to properly discuss the matter.

If an outdoor lunch was inevitable, then Nami had no choice but to enjoy the festivities.

Within a matter of minutes, she had emerged from the Women's Quarters in a brand new bikini. The fabric was a vibrant sangria red, with golden chain links integrated into the straps over her shoulders and the thin bands along her hips. It made her feel elegant after spending the night sleeping on the ground—

Well, no. That wasn't entirely true. She spent some of it in Zoro's arms.

"Sanji-kuuun!" she called out to the party organizer rather hastily as soon as her sandaled feet jumped off of the wooden ramp and hit the shore. "How much longer until we get to eat?"

"Just five more minutes, Nami-swaaan! Help yourself to a piña colada under the umbrella with Robin-chwan!" Sanji suggested while squealing like a child. He was behaving very much like a kid on their birthday as he tossed an assortment of meats and vegetables onto the barbecue, something that never ceased to amaze her. The energy he could summon at a moment's notice for either cooking or women was a feat in its own way.

"How are you feeling, Nami?" Robin asked her the moment she walked under the shade of the umbrella.

Making herself comfortable in the only other lawn chair, Nami sighed as she answered, "I'm all right. It wasn't that bad, actually."

Laid out on her own seat, sunglasses falling down the bridge of her nose, the older woman eyed her with soft surprise. "You managed to find shelter from the rain?"

"Oh yeah," Nami waved off her worry. At the same time, her other hand reached for her awaiting piña colada. "I knew it was coming and Zoro found us a place to hide in time."

"That's a relief. We were all worried that you were stranded in some way." Admitted Robin.

The straw popped out of Nami's mouth after her very first sip. "The closest thing we had to shelter was some branches leaning up against these chopped down trees! It's amazing I didn't catch a cold or anything."

"Especially if you weren't able to make a fire." Agreed her friend, behaving as if the worry had yet to leave her.

"No, but I had Zoro's big body as a heat source, which is just as good," Nami promised her at a rambling pace just to put an end to any lingering concerns. Then, she dove back into her drink.

The sounds of Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and Franky playing some ball-related game on the beach behind her gathered the navigator's attention, compelling her to take a look at what they were freaking out about. In some strange way, whenever she was away from the signature Mugiwara crew chaos, she missed it dearly. Listening to her captain demand another turn for whatever exercise they were doing was oddly comforting to her.

"Is that so?" The sung question wiped away the momentary peace Nami was feeling though as it called her focus back to Robin. She had yet to fix the position of her glasses, which only emphasized the suspicious arch in her brow as she stared back at her.

It took her an embarrassingly long moment to realize what could have garnered such a reaction from her friend. As it dawned on her, Nami sat up straight and flailed the way an innocent person totally would have. "I was willing to stay on the ground all night b-but Zoro let me use him as a body pillow! I-In a seated position, w-with _me-e-e_ curled up in a ball like a cat!"

There were imaginary pins and needles prodding her as the seconds ticked by them. Robin was taking her time digesting her words – or perhaps her behavior when saying those words – and then replied with a meager, "I see."

Nami watched the older woman finally push her sunglasses up to their proper resting place and reach for her drink. Sipping on the icy beverage felt like a cheap attempt at preventing her from saying anything more than that. The polite answer left the navigator feeling dismissed, whether intentional or otherwise, inspiring her to leave her seat and take a stroll around the set up the crew had made on the beach.

Drink in hand, of course.

She already had her fair share of befuddling thoughts about Roronoa Zoro – she didn't need the scrutiny of her crewmates added to the mix. It was true that she had recently become incredibly… fascinated by him. It had always baffled her, which was a different sort of fascination. But his reactions to her lately ever since their naked dip in the sea had left her feeling scattered. Was she supposed to pretend it didn't happen? Was she supposed to be timid around him now? Was he avoiding her or was she just hypersensitive to whatever he did now?

It was taking her a while to see beyond his squeamish behavior and figure out how she would react to this perplexing version of Roronoa Zoro, but she'd get there. Even if it meant she'd end up yearning for another evening in his arms for the rest of their journey and it never happened again, at least she'd know what _she_ wanted from him, despite the odds that nothing particularly wonderful would ever take place between them.

Or maybe she was starved in another way: her empty stomach was aching after going half a day without a single bite to eat.

Nami strolled up next to Sanji on swift feet and put on her most feminine voice. "Mmm, it smells delicious, Sanji-kun. What's on the menu?"

His arms were thrashing about as he managed every single morsel that was cooking on his grill top. Focused, he didn't have time to fall victim to her flirtations, but the chef proudly answered her with a grin on his face, "We have burgers for Franky, plus skewers of all kinds! Scallops, shrimp, chicken, beef, mushrooms, asparagus and cherry tomatoes wrapped in bacon."

Every single item of food he mentioned just made her hungrier. Salivating, Nami praised his efforts with great excitement. "Wow, it all sounds so amazing."

"Oh, also, those sausages over there" – he used his tongs to point at the pyramid arrangement of buns that sat on the platform attached to his barbecue – "are already cooked. I'm just waiting for these to be finished, and then we can sit down and eat."

"Is there anything I can snack on no-o-ow?" She felt like a child trying to trick him into feeding her, but she wasn't above using her feminine wiles to get a bite to eat so late in the day.

Sanji stared apologetically at his assortment of skewers, however, she knew the look was really meant for her. "I promise it'll be ready really soon, Nami-san. I'll make sure you get the first plate of food, all right?"

Nami didn't answer him. She just pouted at him in protest of his denial of her.

Nevertheless, he was much too concentrated on preparing a hearty meal for the crew to pay her much attention. In fact, he only snapped his head upwards when he realized that something was missing. The proud chef beamed at her when he suddenly required her help. "Could you just watch the grill for a second? I need to go grab the side dishes I prepared from the fridge."

"Ah, I could get them—"

"Oh no, Nami-san! I wouldn't dream of making you do any physical labor! Not after what you went through last night!" He was totally prepared to prattle on, but Nami wasn't interested in hearing it.

"Okay, okay." She promised despite the eye roll she gave him.

"Thank you!" He screeched his gratitude as he raced his onto the Sunny.

The hungry navigator glared at the meat that wasn't fully cooked through yet. Smelling the different kinds of skewers as they were grilled to perfection was draining, like it was stealing what remaining energy she had left in her body. All Nami wanted to do was take a bite of something to quell the rumbling in her tummy…

That's when she happened to glance at the beautiful arrangement of sausages sitting before her. Cooked. Ready to eat. Practically taunting her in their most likely warmed buns, with a nice char to their skin.

Nami licked her lips, trying to decide whether or not she was willing to risk upsetting Sanji by disobeying him directly. Then she remembered that the entire celebration was for her sake, and deemed herself worthy of having what would surely be the first bite of the meal. With greedy, sneaky hands did she snatch a sausage from the back of the pyramid in the hopes that she wouldn't be caught. It was probably the largest sausage she'd ever eaten, she surmised when she felt the weight of it in her hands. The girth of it only made it all the more appealing.

Nami opened her mouth wide, ready to take the biggest bite. Her lips flared out around the tip of it due to the size while she began to sink her teeth—

"Hey," a whispered voice crept up behind her, scaring her into stillness. "I'm starving. Is there anything ready to eat yet?"

Oh no, someone had the same idea as her.

Someone's with a rather rough texture to their voice.

Someone who made a shiver run up her spine when he spoke in that deep tone of his.

Slowly, shamefully, Nami looked at Zoro over her shoulder while there was a gigantic sausage stuck in her mouth. She panicked about what she was going to do, now that she had been caught stealing food from her own crew at a party. It quickly occurred to her that she could rip it in half and split it with him, hoping to buy his silence!

But the way he jumped back a few feet from her told Nami that her plan wasn't going to work. No, instead of giving her a chance to speak at all, a suspiciously jittery Zoro stammered, "I-I, uh, n-never mind. I-I'll eat later!" He ran off in his swim trunks and she assumed he was merely going to run over to play whatever ball game the boys were playing.

No, Nami was compelled to watch the proud, collected swordsman panic until he had walked straight into the ocean and dove underwater like some kind of terrified shark.

All she could do was stand there and watch the spectacle as it unfolded before her very eyes. It was so chaotic that she couldn't begin to compute what on earth had caused him to react in such a way. It was so distracting that she didn't even notice when Sanji returned. His high-pitched beckoning reached her first, calling out to her, "Nami-saaan! I'm back—Ah, you're eating a sausage?"

Guilt rushed over her coldly and she snapped her jaw shut. It was a delicious bite like she had suspected, making it difficult to prioritize any emotion other than appreciation. "Ah, these are really good! I normally don't eat these, but it's… it's…"

A sausage.

He had run away from her when she had an incredibly thick, long sausage in her mouth.

No, he couldn't have thought… could he!?  
"AH!" Nami shouted, throwing her bitten into sausage at the prepared pyramid. The top two rows crumbled from the impact which upset the chef who prepared them greatly. He tried to catch the tumbling ones while she looked back at the sea. Zoro hadn't resurfaced yet, and a part of her didn't want him to!

Or did she? Was there something going on with him? Between them? The possibility that he was thinking dirty things like that made her feel jittery too, in her own way. All she wanted to do was tease him and chastise him without facing him. She didn't know if she was ready to yet! It would be uncomfortable for both of them if she said something to him and she was completely wrong. However, she didn't think she was… Was she?  
"Nami, are you okay?" Robin asked for the second time that day. She had run over to her when she had made the commotion with the pyramid, earning the concern that was being shown to her.

Nami rebuffed her completely. "I'm fine!" She promised, though this time, she wasn't so sure.

'_What does it mean, if he's looking at me in that way?_'


End file.
